Yarnivorous

G'day all! After months of glorious weather (with a couple of hiccups here and there), we've suddenly run into grey. Brilliant trees dulled by grey skies I've had just three or so lines from a Pink Floyd song on my brain for days.  "Goodbye, blue sky, goodbye, blue sky, goodbye...goodbye...."  It is getting a little tiresome, but not as much as the grey that will be getting on my nerves soon enough. We spent yesterday getting more lighting for our place cos just one day of gray and UGH!  I had forgotten how dull it gets.  At least it isn't cold yet.  The terrarium now has lights only about a year after we first bought the glass cabinet with the idea of turning it into a terrarium (though really it is an African Violet house), we have monstrously large bright lights in the bedroom that will feel like the sun has just risen....  Nathan even has plans to computer control them through dimmers. A rather large AV flower, not its true colour. I ...

G'day all! I'm suffering from a severe case of startitis.  I have all these things I would like to do and make but I can't even get them started!  So many yummy things, so little time to do them, plus I really should finish off the quilt that is currently being free-motion quilted (well not *literally* being quilted at the moment cos that would need a computerised long arm chugging away, and it is just me and my sewing machine and I do not have four arms and eyes in the back of my head let alone the coordination to type and quilt at the same time), finish Nathan's birthday socks (only a month and a bit late), finish a summer top even though it is definitely Fall now, plot the new woolly makings for winter, baste another quilt all ready for quilting and finish off a couple of wall hangings for the bedroom, book myself into three different knitting/spinning events coming up very soon... What I really need is a bad case of finishitis! A little idea of the quilt Al...

G'day all! I must say I did go totally OFFF, thank heavens not like a raw prawn in the sun. And can someone remind me that next time I go to a fiber festival that taking my spinning wheel would be a good idea?  At least if I drive my car there.  My wheel does fit into a suitcase very easily but lugging it around for a weekend is not so much fun. The drive took a lot less time than I thought.  Portland is only 3.5 hours south of here and when I5 is running smoothly, it is a trouble free trip.  Portland itself is quite small - it does spread out sideways a bit but compared to what I'm used to (cities of 3-4 million people) it seems quite compact and the 4pm on a Friday traffic was laughable.  Maybe two miles of stop start traffic in two bursts and that was it.  It looked interesting and I want to go visit Portland itself properly.  We could catch the train there - it costs more than driving but it only takes 3.5 hours (same as driving!!!) and then...

G'day all! Rather excited.  After I've unpacked the dishwasher, done the vacuuming and taken the rubbish out, I am going OFFF! Yes, I'm driving down to the Orgeon Fleece and Fiber Festival.  It should be good!  Portland is only about four hours away and OFFF is not much further, so it is all excitement :-) I also have a quilt to show off but I work in the afternoons usually and the mornings have been foggy/smoggy/smoky and not at all good for picture taking. See you next week, when I will probably have lots of pics and maybe some new, ahem, stash... anon!

G'day all! Today I trundled down to the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance in South Lake Union for my two year checkup. I like this bridge.  Not sure why. In Oz, I get to do scans and bloodtests before I go, here, it's the other way around. The oncologist I saw was quite impressed with the chemo I had - FEC (fluorouracil, epirubicin and cyclophosphamide) is not commonly used in the States, presumably because of its side effects, but I tolerated it a whole lot better than I did the taxotere.  She was mighty impressed with the dose of that too - I think I got the highest dose they are game to give people.  I was so glad to get off taxotere - at the time I thought I was doing pretty well though in hindsight....  I am too trusting and the oncologist I saw was very encouraging, but jeez I had some issues.  Anyway, if it really was such a high dose, no wonder I felt , no I was hammered by it.  Two years on, I am pretty good - the most annoying things I've not...

G'day all! I must trouble you again for congratulations on making it to eight years of something. Today it is eight years of marriage. A miracle. Us at Mt St Helens for Nathan's birthday I would share pics of us over the years, but last week I upgraded the operating system on my laptop and umm, well I busted it and it is Too Hard to get them off the server.  My almost five year old laptop is now a fancy shaped brick.  Actually, it was not my fault that: a) Canonical (creators of Ubuntu) left a typo in one of the files or commands, which means that python (programming language) busted, which then meant that my new version of Ubuntu has problems, and b) Acer and linux have issues about the handling of the fan driver, which combined with the busted python means my laptop gets stuck at the point where the fan stuff happens and goes around and around in a never ending loop until it overheats and shuts down. It is handy that I have a work laptop which is currently f...

G'day all! Today/tomorrow is my eighth blogiversary!  (My first post was technically on the 20th of August, 2004 but that is the 19th in the USA so I am calling today the blogiversary.  And this opus has taken so long to write and get photos edited for that it is nearly the 20th here anyway!) Yep, eight years ago I decided to start writing a blog.  I had been reading the Yarn Harlot 's blog for a few months and thought yeah, I will do this too.  I have to say I don't have the readership that Steph does but that isn't too bad because she has copped buckets (of abuse) over the years.  I don't have the book contracts either and I would respectfully suggest I am not the writer she is. So how should I celebrate my blogiversary? I went to the market and bought flowers, along with vegetables (including some of the biggest carrots I've ever seen), eggs, milk (for DH) and meat. I knitted more of the baby layette for Nathan's cousin, who must be about to pop ...